Trucker pleads guilty to not reporting spill

A South Carolina truckdriver
pleaded guilty last week to a federal charge of failure to report a release
of hazardous waste. The driver faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000
fine.

Russell Moneypenny, of
Williamsport, failed to stop after his tanker leaked about 30 gallons of "skunk
water" last May along Interstate 64 in downtown Charleston. Moneypenny
violated a federal law requiring the National Response Center in Washington,
DC, to be notified any time there is a chemical leak. He is scheduled to be
sentenced in December.

Skunk water is a "highly
flammable and extremely malodorous hazardous solution containing, among other
things, teri-butyl mercaptan, methanol and benzene," according to the
charge filed against him. The spill reportedly sent at least nine people to
the hospital.